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Haskell County, Oklahoma
Haskell County is a county in Oklahoma. The population of the county is 12,769. Major roads Oklahoma State Highway 2 Oklahoma State Highway 9 Oklahoma State Highway 26 Oklahoma State Highway 31 Oklahoma State Highway 71 Oklahoma State Highway 82 Geography Adjacent counties Le Flore County (east) Muskogee County (north) Sequoyah County (northeast) McIntosh County (northwest) Latimer County (south) Pittsburg County (west) Demographics As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the county is: 72.17% White (9,215) 17.50% Native American (2,234) 9.66% Other (1,234) 0.67% Black or African American (86) 17.0% (2,170) of Haskell County residents live below the poverty line. Theft rate statistics Haskell County has average rates of Pokemon theft and murder. The county reported 7 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 1.11 murders a year. Pokemon Communities Cities Stigler - 2,685 Towns Keota - 564 Kinta - 297 McCurtain - 516 Tamaha - 176 Whitefield - 391 CDPs Lequire - TBD Unincorporated communities Hoyt Climate Fun facts * Stigler is home to the Haskell County Courthouse, which has become notable for erecting marble statues of the Ten Commandments and the Mayflower Compact on the front lawn. In the seventh commandment, the word "adultery" is misspelled. * An election in 1908 picked Stigler over Keota and Whitefield as the county seat. * Coal mining in the early 20th century created jobs and railroads to southern Haskell County. San Bois Coal Company built more than four hundred company houses in McCurtain and Chant (two towns that eventually merged into one) for their miners. In 1912 a large, underground explosion rocked the Number Two mine at McCurtain, killing seventy-three miners and bankrupting the San Bois Company. The McCurtain disaster and the declining demand for coal in the 1920s halted underground coal mining in the county, though strip mining still continued. The Lone Star Steel Company became the county's leading coal producer. Haskell County was the source of 20 percent of Oklahoma's coal production between 1950 and 1980. * Agriculture was the most important component of the county economy in the early 20th century. Cotton was the most important crop, followed by corn and oats. The collapse of cotton prices and the Great Depression caused a drop in population as well as farm acreage. In 1934 the Federal Emergency Relief Administration helped over 85 percent of Haskell County's population. Ranching supplanted farming, which was forced to diversify. By 1964, livestock accounted for about 70 percent of the county's revenues. * Keota was first called "KeeOtter", and was later changed to "Keota". The town's name may come from a Choctaw word meaning "the fire gone out", referring to an entire tribe being destroyed by disease. Another account is that Keota was derived from "Jim Keese", a rancher who owned the land where the townsite was located, and "Otter," for Otter Creek, a tributary of the Sans Bois Creek which winds its way through town. * On December 31, 1974, the Otter Creek Archaeological Site (NR 74001661) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. * Tamaha began as a riverboat landing on the Arkansas River in the 1830s. Initially, the community was called Pleasant Bluff, after a nearby geographic feature. During the Civil War, the Union steamer, J. R. Williams, had carried supplies for the Union army between Fort Smith, Arkansas and Fort Gibson in Indian Territory. On June 15, 1864, Confederate forces under Colonel Stand Watie attacked with cannon and small arms fire as the ship negotiated a bend at Pleasant Bluff. The ship was crippled and ran aground, where the Confederates captured it. According to the Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, the rusted skeleton of the steamer remains where it was grounded. The town grew slowly after the Civil War. The name changed to Tamaha in 1884, when a post office was established. It had a population of 237 in 1900, increasing to 501 in 1920. However, riverboat traffic, the major source of business, ceased in 1912, Two fires, one in 1919 and the other in 1930, destroyed much of the town. The population fell to 202 in 1930 and declined to its historic low of 80 in 1960. Most of the former residents moved to the nearby town of Stigler. The post office closed in 1954. In the 21st century, the main source of business is travel by vacationers, attracted by the nearby Kerr Lake. The only physical link to the town's past is the Tamaha Jail and Ferry Landing, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NR 80003266). * Haskell County was predominately Democrat throughout most of the 20th century, but has swung powerfully Republican in the early 21st century like most of Oklahoma. Category:Oklahoma Counties